We begin to approach the end of the second leg of the Toughness Competition. But there is still quite a lot left undiscovered, and many things still needed to explore. What secrets will the labyrinth uncover, I wonder?

Pokemonking0924: Pranks are definitely a lot of fun, and very necessary for a tense situation like this one.

KedharS: Doesn't look very good, no.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Lila really should have seen it coming.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 770

Lila's scream was so loud, everyone in the labyrinth could hear it, and it woke up a few people who were sleeping in the audience.

"What the heck?!" Ayame cried, whirling around in the direction she thought she'd heard the scream come from.

"That was Lila!" Olivia gasped, glancing behind her. She was worried about the other girl, sure, but then she thought of Alcea, and the possibility that that bitch might get ahead of her. She wasn't about to let that happen. So she didn't spare Lila a second thought and looked ahead, continuing her walk through the labyrinth.

Sango was surprised, but she kept following. She figured that there must have been a reason that Olivia wasn't bothered by her colleague's screams. Then again, she'd been teleported away by that Dusclops and been fine, so maybe there wasn't anything to worry about after all…

Alcea felt a wave of concern run through her, but she didn't have a response beyond that. She glanced at Gabrielle, who seemed equally unperturbed. As with Sango, Alcea understood that Lila had probably encountered one of the obstacle pokemon, and gotten scared. But as for danger? No, Alcea didn't think there was anything to worry about in that regard.

But there were some people who weren't as capable of compartmentalizing their feelings as Alcea and Olivia were.

"Should we go find her?" Serefina asked, glancing at the trail of cotton behind them. She was worried about Lila, definitely, and that was a bigger concern than getting out of this labyrinth. But at the same time, she might have only been thinking that because she wasn't going to win, and to her, this contest wasn't a big deal. She glanced at Ayame, who had a tense look on her face, as if she was debating what to do herself.

Ayame… Ayame could win. That thought made it difficult for Serefina to voice her concerns. If the other girl didn't want to give up her lead (assuming they were in the lead, for all either of them knew they could have been the furthest away from finishing the labyrinth) then could Serefina really pressure her into doing it? Maybe this was where they should split up.

"I know what you're thinking," Ayame said, her tense expression hardening up into a look of resolve. "But Lila's going to be fine. Remember, this is a school event. There's not going to be anything that's actually going to be a threat to us. Lila probably just encountered one of those obstacle pokemon, and lost her nerve. She's may be a scaredy-cat, but I don't think she's in any real danger. So you don't need to worry."

That… made a lot of sense. Serefina had encountered that Xatu before, and even though it had startled her, and teleported her somewhere else, it wasn't like she had actually gotten injured or anything, Ayame was probably right.

Convinced, Serefina followed Ayame through the labyrinth. But there was still that nagging fear in the back of her mind, that Lila was in danger.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lila screamed again. She ran to the Mimikyu shuffling towards them, false head bobbing as it approached. "It's so cute! Oh, Darla, it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen!" She gushed, crouching down and scooping the Mimikyu up into her arms, hugging the small pokemon close as it thrashed.

"Mimikyu!" The ghost growled, struggling against Lila, but Lila was having none of it.

"Lila!" Darla exclaimed. "What the heck are you doing?! Get away!"

"What? Why?" Lila pouted, turning back to Darla with pleading eyes. "Darla, it's the cutest pokemon ever, don't you see that?"

"It might attack!" Darla objected. And true to her word, shadows were already coming out of the bottom of the Mimikyu's rag disguise, twisting towards Lila.

Lila might have been attracted to the cute little pokemon, but even she wasn't so suicidally stupid as to keep holding onto a pokemon that was about to attack. She dropped the Mimikyu and leapt back seconds before the shadows reached out to wrap around her, making sure to stay as far away from the Mimikyu as she could.

"Dina, use dark pulse!" Darla ordered.

"Dein!" Dina opened her mouth, an orb of dark energy forming between her jaws. She fired it at the Mimikyu.

"No, Darla, don't hurt it!" Lila wailed.

"Are you nuts?!" Darla wanted to scream, but she held her tongue. Lila was just… a difficult girl when it came to something like that. "We need to fight it off, Lila, we don't know what it wants from us, but it's clearly hostile!"

Lila had to admit that was true, even if she didn't like it. Dina's dark pulse struck the Mimikyu, and its disguise broke, the Pikachu head tilting lifelessly over.

That made the Mimikyu mad. Seething with rage, dark shadows surged from beneath its cloaked body, writhing towards the girls.

"Lila, a little help please?" Darla shouted to her partner. But much to her relief, Lila was already on the move.

"Shine, use protect!" She ordered, her Morelull glowing pink. A pink barrier appeared around her, stretching out and wrapping around Lila, Darla, and Dina as well, protecting them from the attacks of the Mimikyu.

"Nicely done," Darla nodded to Lila, who smiled back at her.

"Don't be too mean," Lila urged. "We want to beat it, but, you know, nicely."

Darla resisted the urge to scream.

"Mimikyu!" The Mimikyu seethed, banging against the barrier.

"Before it can break through, use sleep powder," Lila ordered her Morelull.

"Shine," Shine nodded, shaking the tiny mushrooms growing out of her head. A cloud of green spores floated on the air, the pink barrier falling to allow them to pass. The sleep powder landed on the Mimikyu, and the tiny pokemon tried to knock it away with its shadows. But unlike Sammy, it was far from skilled enough to repel all of the powder, and soon the drowsiness from the sleep powder began to take hold.

"Mi… mi…" Mimikyu gurgled, slumping over and falling asleep. Lila and Darla looked at each other, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least we aren't in danger," Darla said. "Ghosts are one thing, but a Fairy type pokemon… that's over the line."

Lila scowled, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Oh, I see how it is," she scoffed, shaking her head. "Anti-Fairy sentiment, huh?"

"Lila, now is not the time," Darla groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Apparently, there really are ghost pokemon here who will attack us, and I have a feeling that the next pokemon we encounter you won't find so huggable."

Lila could see the merit in that. She swallowed and followed after Darla, giving one last passing look at the slumbering Mimikyu.

"I should have brought a pokeball," she grumbled under her breath.

"Again, Lila, not the time," Darla said. She didn't know how much further they had to go through the labyrinth, or how long it was going to take, but she hoped that they'd get out of it soon.

The trip through the labyrinth went mostly like that. The girls tried their various methods to move through the corridors, and did the best they could to escape or fight off the obstacles as they appeared, making as much progress as they could.

Olivia wasn't pleased to accept Sango's help so readily, but she also recognized that the other girl was a lot more skilled in this area than she was, so it paid to listen to her advice. The only problem was, Sango's advice came with more than just helpful tips, it also came with a lot of attempts to make conversation as well.

Conversation that Olivia wasn't exactly thrilled to partake in.

"Do you mind me asking why you're taking this so seriously?" Sango asked. A few hours ago she would have been far too intimidated by Olivia's presence to ask such a question, but it was kind of hard to be intimidated by someone after a few hours of wandering aimlessly in the dark together. Olivia was seeming less like an imposing, unstoppable juggernaut of beauty and class, and more like any other girl, even if she was older and reminded Sango a lot of the kind of girls who had intimidated her back in middle school.

Yes, Olivia minded quite a bit, actually, that was none of Sango's business. And she let the other girl know it by keeping her lips firmly locked and shooting a glare that Sango could barely make out in the dull glow of the lights.

Sango frowned. She didn't know what to say, but she could feel that intimidation and awkwardness coming back up. Clearly, this was a sensitive subject for Olivia, and not one that Sango should be prying into.

"Okay, I just… sorry," she awkwardly apologized. She wasn't going to be like Cynthia, pressing on things that weren't her right. And also…

Sango glanced up at the walls. She knew there were cameras up there. She really had stepped in it, huh? Trying to make small talk had nearly caused her to enter a majorly important discussion and out one of Olivia's personal secrets in front of the whole campus, even if they were probably all asleep right now. She needed to be more careful about stuff like that.

"I'm going to do my best," Olivia calmly answered her once the awkward moment had passed. "There's nothing more to say on the matter."

There was a lot more to say, actually, but Olivia wasn't going to say it. That was her own personal issue to deal with. Her own personal grudge.

Alcea Vermeil… she needed to defeat her. It was as simple as that. After everything that had happened, the thought that Alcea could still somehow be superior to her…

No. I already promised that something like that would never happen again.

The first time Olivia met Alcea Vermeil was at a party when she was 10 years old.

It was a party thrown at the Evergreen Estate. Of course, as an illegitimate daughter of a maid, it was impossible for Olivia to be seen anywhere at the party itself. Even though she had worn her nicest dress, a gift from her father, she couldn't even get in the door. All she could do was standing in the garden and look at a world that could never be hers.

Olivia's mother was dead. Her father was the only "parent" she had in her life, and even he could not claim himself to be her parent except behind closed doors.

Olivia was so dreadfully alone, that when the first hand of kindness extended to her, she hadn't known what to make of it.

She hadn't known the girl's name, but she was the prettiest girl Olivia had ever seen. She wanted to be just like her, even though she knew they were from far different worlds.

The girl had taught her to dance. She was just some bastard, no "real" noble, but the other girl had taught her all the same, to her shock and delight.

At the end of the night, Olivia felt the first pang of love in her life. She had no idea what it was at the time, but she knew that this girl, this redhead… she wanted to hug her, and kiss her, and most of all, she wanted the two of them to never be apart.

That night, the redhead had opened her eyes to a new, more beautiful world, a world she so desperately wanted to be a part of. She wanted to hold the girl and never let her go.

In time she would realize those feelings were love, but now, at ten years of age, she wasn't even sure she COULD feel love for another girl.

When the two said their goodbyes, it was Olivia who spoke first.

"Um…!" She exclaimed, catching the other girl by surprise. "My… my name is… Olivia Himeko," she confessed. "Could… um, I know… I know this is… asking a lot, since I… I'm just the daughter of a maid, but I was… I was hoping, if you could…" her voice kept catching in her throat. She took a deep breath and tried to spit the words out.

"Could you please be my friend?!" She pleaded, practically in tears. Then she began crying for real. "I-I've never… I've never had a friend before… not, not really… I just… I-I know I'm not… I'm just a… b-but, please…"

She lowered her head and scraped at her eyes with her tiny hands, ashamed. She didn't want to show this pretty girl her crying face, and as much as she loved looking at the pretty red-haired beauty, she was afraid of what she would see.

Disgust? Disbelief? Disappointment?

There were so many looks of rejection that Olivia could imagine, and she didn't want to see any of them, not from her.

What she saw instead was a handkerchief. Red as a rose and embroidered with gold, held out in front of her. Confused, Olivia looked up into the smiling face of her dance partner.

"Mon nom est… ahem," the girl cleared her throat, and began speaking in English. "My name is Alcea. Alcea Vermeil, is it?"

The girl who called herself Alcea reached up with her handkerchief and gently wiped the tears from Olivia's eyes.

"Oui, I would love to be your friend," she warmly agreed, and Olivia fell head over heels in an instant for that gorgeous smile.

"Th-Then… w-well… my dad is… err, I mean, sorry, let me try again," Olivia said, clearing her throat. She couldn't reveal her family secret, not to an outsider, even if she was her friend and Olivia really, really wanted to tell her. "Lord Evergreen is going to be holding a birthday party for his daughter in a few months, i-if… if you want to come to that, then… maybe you could… help me with my dancing again?" She asked, her voice getting fainter and fainter as she looked hopefully at the other girl.

Alcea smiled. "Oui," she said, nodding. "That would be just after my tenth birthday as well, I would love to come."

Ever since the death of her mother had torn a hole in Olivia's life, she had felt like there was something missing.

When she'd realized the truth of her birth and confronted her father, and he'd told her the truth, she'd realized what that thing was, even as she knew there was no hope of recovering it. She couldn't ever gain that position that she would have wanted, and she knew that her father could never be her father in front of others.

But she didn't care about that. She had tried so hard to win her father's love and approval, in spite of her abysmal skill as a pokemon trainer, and nothing had ever worked. It had never been enough. She had begun to lose hope, and think that there was no point in trying.

Before tonight, Olivia had felt like the world was an empty and dark place.

But now, she had something bright and shining in her life, to replace the hole her mother had left, something to give her hope and reassure her that things weren't as bad as she feared. She had never felt more alive than she did in that garden, exchanging smiles with Alcea Vermeil.

It had been so wonderful that she was afraid it was going to end. She didn't want to leave. Even as Alcea said her goodbyes, and returned to her family, she continued to sit in that rose garden and dream about her new friend and love.

Even when the party wound down and the lights went dark, Olivia still wouldn't return to her room. As charmed and overjoyed as she was, she couldn't deny the fear welling up inside of her that this was all just a dream, and that as soon as she left the rose garden, like Cinderella everything would return to the way it was.

And if that was the case, she wanted to nurture that dream for as long as she could, before her carriage turned back into a pumpkin.

Eventually, though, she did make it back to her room. And she was happy to be there. From her windowsill, she could see the rose garden just by turning her head while sitting at her desk. She would gaze upon it fondly for hours.

Before that night, the garden had been a sight that she had seen countless times, not anything worth getting excited over. But now, seeing it like this, it was like the garden had been born anew, bathed in beauty like nothing she'd ever seen before.

The next few months were like that. Olivia was seeing the world with new eyes, and all the things that had bothered and worried her before didn't seem like such a big deal now. She was bursting with happiness, practically singing and dancing down the halls.

It didn't matter to her anymore that she couldn't become a talented pokemon trainer and make her father proud. Sure, that knowledge stung, and she still tried her best, but it didn't seem as daunting, and his disappointment didn't seem as soul-crushing as it once had.

It was like she knew that even if she didn't succeed, everything was going to be alright, because she had Alcea. She would make it through these next few months, and then meet her friend in the rose garden again. It was everything she was looking forward to, she couldn't wait!

She trained and failed, and kept smiling. She took care of her pokemon and tried her best, knowing that even though she still had a lot to learn, it was fine. She would do the best she could with what she knew, and not worry. Just like with dancing, she was certain that Alcea would give her praise just for trying her hardest.

That was something she'd never experienced before. The idea that someone could appreciate her hard work, even without showing any results…

Well, that was all going to change! Ever since Alcea had showed her the moves, she had been practicing in secret, excited to surprise her friend with her performance. Alcea would be completely shocked by what she could do!

And then came the promised day, her chance to finally see Alcea again. Olivia was overflowing with excitement, and everyone could tell she was in a good mood. It was practically infectious how happy she was!

Her sister was dressed up all nice and fancy for the ball their father would be throwing. Olivia congratulated her and said she looked beautiful, and it had made her sister smile to hear those words. Everything from Olivia's lips sounded so sweet and genuine now that she was bursting with love.

She changed into her dress hours before the time to meet, she was so excited. Alcea would be coming, and she made sure she looked her best. She even tried on makeup for the first time, to give her a more "adult" appearance. She wanted to look her best for her friend, after all!

Olivia counted down the hours before the party would begin, and just as the first guests were starting to arrive she threw herself down the stairs and ran out to the garden, the sun starting to set on the horizon as she got there.

She didn't even turn her eyes towards the festivities. Nothing about the Evergreens or their party mattered to her anymore. Right now, the only thing she cared about was Alcea.

She sat on a bench and waited for her friend to appear, certain that this was going to be the best night of her life.

Aww, little Olivia and little Alcea are so cute together. I wonder how it all went wrong…